


o V 

%/, 938DRS«7y 

r"^ : i .07/25/01 99999 °. I 






^o 




/, 




^o 


o'^ 


^^ 


■^.^ 






















"oV 



.■^' 





^oV 



^ 




'^ 



^0 



^^ 



,4 o 



^ 



^. 




^o> 




^^ 



^, 



w> 



:nate 



)OCUME]sT 

No. 80 



.VORI.D CONFLICT IN 
TO AMERICAN D 



i.i:.i.ATION 
OCRA^ ' 



AR ADDRESS 



REPRINTED FIUjM THE JULY, 1917, NUMBER OF THE 

> VNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF 

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 



BY 



WALTER LIPPMANN 



if % 



'^Bm 



PRESENTED BY MR. FLETCHER 
JuTTy 80, 1917. — Refirred to the Committee on Printing 



HAvSHINGTON 

GOVEUSAKST PKiNTING OFFICE 
1917 






SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 121. 

Keported by Mr. Fletcher. 



In the Senate of the United States, 

September 11, 1917. 

Resolved, That the pamphlet submitted by the Senator fro 

Florida (Mr. Fletcher), on July 30, 1917, entitled "The World Confli 

in its Relation to American Democracy," aii address by Wall 

Lippmann, be printed as a Senate document. 

Attest : 

James M, Bakfr, Secretary. 



D, of D, 
SEP 24 191/ 5 



THE W)IiLD LICT IN ITS RELATION TO 

fljAN' DEMOCRACY. 

liy Walter LirPMANN. 
I. 

The way in wbich President WHson directed Anmerica's ent tnce 
into the war lias had a mighty eYeet on the public opinion d die 
world. Many of those who are disappointed or pleased say U ey 
are surprised. They would not oe surprised had they made it th^ir 
business this last year to undersrand the policy of their Goyernmertt, 

In May, 1916, the Presidei:i made a speech which will be counted 
among the two or three decisive utterances of American foreign 
polic}^ The Sussex pledge had just been extracted from the Ger- 
man Government, i^^id on the surface ^imerican neutrality seemed 
assured. The si -x^h was an announcement that American isola- 
tion was ended, ;ind that we were prepared to join a League of Peace. 
This was thf mdation of all that followed, aiad it was intended to 
make clea • , ne world that America would not abandon its tradi- 
tional policy for imperialistic adventure, that if America had to fight 
it wonid light for the peace and order of the world. It was a great 
porte-^^ in human history, but it was overshadowed at the time by 
the 0] ening of the presidential campaign. 

Thiough the summer the President insisted again and again that 
the time liad come when America must assume its share of responsi- 
biJit y for a better organization of mankind. In the early autumn 
ev startling news came irom Germany. It was most confusing 
1): !Huse it promise! peace maneuvers, hinted at a separate arrange- 
ment with the Russian court party, and at the resumption of un- 
limited submarine warfare. The months from November to Febru- 
ary were to tell the £tory. Never was the situation more perplexing. 
The prestige of the allies was at low ebb, there was treachery in 
Russia, ^nil, as Mr. Lansing sai:., America was on the verge of war. 
We were not only on the verge of war, but on the verge of a bewil- 
dering wai •., lich would not command the whole-hearted suppoit of 
the Ajiiericaxi people. 

With the elecriojj. past, and a continuity of administration as- 
sured, it became Prcfcident Wilson's task to ir.ake some bold move 
which woidd clarify the mwddle. While he wa^- preparing this move, 
the German chancellor made his high-handed rMoposal for a blind 
conference. That it would be rejected was obvious. That the re- 
jection wo aid be followed by tV submarine war was certain. The 
danger was that America would be 'b->vv^ii into the wa,' at the mo- 
ment when Germany appeared to be offeiinir the peace foi which the 
bulk of the American people hoped, ^'^'r- tiiow now that t}u ace 
Germany was prepared to make last Decei:iber was the peace of ; 'v^n- 
queror; but at the time Germany could pose as a nation whicl. , ;d 
been deiied a rliance to end the war. tt was necessary, therefore, 

3 



4 WOEU. COI^FLICT IN ITS km.aTION TO AMEEICA-X DEMO' Y- 

to test the sincerity of German, by askinj;>; ])iib]i;'i v f >r a HtatemeT^t 
'^' lerms. The President's croular note to thej^-n/i-.T" ^'i' ssued. 
this note stated more precis y thnn ever ])ef( hat An; : ca was^ 
ready to help guarantee the ^^eace, and iit th' :e time it ga^e all 

the Of'lligerents a chance to show that the;^- ^I'rhstiri;: for terms 

whici. could be justifiea to American vrpii \; note ■ v'as very 

much ni^understood at firn because the tu ,t had -aid that, 

since b)th ;^ides claimed to ■■ fighting for the tiiiiie thing-^, neither 
couid -veh refuse to defii.e in terms. The misanderstanaing so<)r. 
passed away when the repli'.*s 'pme. Germany i)rushed the Presi- 
dent aside, and showed that she wanted a peace by intrigue. The 
all'/^s produced a document whici' contained a nuiiiber of formulae^ 
so cleverly worded that they migtr Ix^ stretched to cover the wildest 
! -iiands of the extremists or contracted to a moderate and just 
settlement. Above all the allies assented to the league of peace 
which Germany had dismissed as irrelevant. 

The war was certain to go on with Anioriea drawn iji. On January 
22', after submarine warfare had been decided upon but before it had 
been proclaimed, the President made his addT-ess to the Senate. It 
was an international progiram for democracy. Tt was also a last 
appeal to German liberals to avert a catastrophe. They did not 
avert it, and on February 1 Germany attacked tb' whole neutral 
world. That America would not submit was assured. The ques- 
tion that remained to be decided was the extent of ovl ,; '"ticipation 
in the war. Should it be merely defensive on the liigls seas, or 
should it be a separate war? The real stource of confusior w£is the 
treacherous and despotic Russian Government. By no twist of 
language could a partnership with that Government be Eir;' con- 
sistent with the principles laid down by the President in his aci dress 
to the Senate. 

The Russian revolution ended that perplexity and we coMid 
enter the war with a clear cciscience and a whole heart. Wiien 
Russia became a republic an i the American Republic became m 
enemy, the German Empire was isolated before mankind as the final 
refuge of autocracy. The principle of its life is destructive of the 
peace of the world. How destructive that principle is the ever- 
widening circle of the war has disclosed. 

11. 

Our task is to define that danger so that our immense sacrifices 
shall serve to end it. I can not do that for myself without turning 
to the origins of the war in order to trace the logical steps by which 
the pursuit of a German victory has enlisted the enmity of the world. 

We read stit-emcjits liy Germans that there was a conspu-acy 
against their latiojial deve'opment, that they found themselves en- 
circled by enemies, that Russia, using Serbia as an instrument, was 
trying to destroy Austria, aiu t-liat the entente had already detached 
Ttfii Supposing that all this were true, it w^ould remain an extraor- 
thing that the encente had succeeded in encircling Ger- 
y;!.LL;\ Had that empire b3en a good neighbor in Europe, by what 
mu-acle could the old hostdity between England and France and 
Russia have been wiped ou^ so quickly? But there \^ .••.,- it ive evi- 
dence that no such conspiracy existed. 



WORLD r:)KrLICT IN ITS EELATIOlN 

Germany's place in the sun is Asia Minor. 15y tj.c .i.jigio-Ov'!-man 
agreement oi June, 1914, recently ]>nHlished, a satisftuvory arrange- 
nient In.d been reached about th'> economic exploitation of the 
Turkish !-Cinpire. Prof. Rohrbach lias acknowledged (■ .'t Germany 
was giver. ( oncessions "which ocieoded all expectat- '' and on 
Decembv'-r- 2, 1914, when the war w^ ■ five months old, ^ ^thmann- 

Hollweg* .ieclared in the R(-Jc}is^ ' "this understandmg was to 

'" '■sry possible poiiJ ' ' The place iji the sun had 

. -('red bj^ negotir.uid 
-'bt tlie road to rhat phu ;y thr< ugh Austria Hungary and 
Qke l^alkans. It was this hi^nway which Germany determined to 
coniro' absolutely; and the --liief obstacle on that highway was 
Serbia backed by Russia, .iito the cor iplexities of that Balkan 
intrigue I am not competerii. to enter. We need, however, do no 
more than follow Lord Grey in the be-^ ' 'Hat Austria had a genuine 
grievance against Serbia, f f -ir greaiej' '• i c, certainly, than the United 
States has ever had agcunst Mexico. ' -ut Britain had no stake in 
the Austro-Serbian quarrel itself. 

It had an interest, ni the method vn j ,.irh the Central Powers took 
of settling the quarrei. When Gernit^ ,y declared that Europe could 
not be consulted, that Austria must b-^ allowed to crush Serbia with- 
out referc'nT w. the concert of Eur<)pc, Germany proclaimed herself 
an fiKiny of uiternational order. She preferred a war which in- 
volved all of r.;urope to any adirdssicfn of the fact that a cooperative 
Europe oxiftted. It was an assertion of unlimited national sover- 
eignty which Europe could not tolerate. _ ' 

This ]>rought Russia and France into the field'. Instantl}^ Ger- 
many acted on the same doctrine of unlimited national sovereignty 
by siriiiing at France through Belgium. Had Belgium been merely 
a small neutral nation the crnno would stiU have been one of the 
worst in the histor.v of the nu^dern world. The fact that Belgium 
was an internationalized! Stale, has made the invasion the master 
tragedy of the war. For B-.'-^'i^nn represented what progress the 
world had made toward cooperation. If it could not stirvive then 
no internationalism was possible. Tiiat is why through these years 
of horror upon horror the Belgian horror is the fiercest of all. The 
biirning the shooting, the starving, and .*he robbing of small and 
inofiViii'^ive nations is tragic enough. But the German crime in Bel- 
giur: is greater than the sum of Belgium's nnsery. It is a crime 
aga.M the bases of faith at which the world unist build or perish. 

Ti 'J invasion of Belgium instantly brought the m ^> British democra- 
cies into the war, I think thi« is the accurate way to state the fact. 
Had the war remaiiied a Balkan war with France engaged merely 
because of her treaty witli Russia, had the fighting been confined to 
the Franco-German frontier, the British Empire might 'tave come 
into the war to save the balance of power and to fulfill the naval 
agreements with France, but t' • conflict would probably never have 
become a people's war in all tbtc +'ree nations of the empii'e. What- 
ever justice there may have been In Austria's origin; ! Mi'-xrrel with 
Serbia and Russia was overwhehu.^^i ''^v the exhibition •>! i^ational 
lawlessness in Belgium. 

This Ic 1 the third great phase of the war, the phose whlciv con- 
cerned \merica most immediately, 'rt;, -illjes, directed by Gr^Mt 
Britain, "mployed sea power to the t ■ They barred every rt nu 



(^ '^FLIOT IN T.1^ "RELATIOlSr TO AMERICAlsr DRMOCRACY. 

to Germany, and undoubtedly violated many commercj Ights of 
neutrals. ^Vhat America would do about this became ot decisive 
importance. If it chose to uphold the rights it claimed, it would aid 
Germany and cripple the allies. If it refused to do moic than ne- 
gotiate with the allies, it had, wh;..tever the technicalities-: of the case 
might be, thrown its great wfi"' ' '2'amst Germany. It had earned 
the enmity of the German G ■■':. an enmity which br-vivo out 

into intriguf and conspir icai) soil. SomewLorc in the 

winter of 191.5 America \ ■/ •' t^ choose b'^tween a polic\ wnich 

helped German^/- and one which iiej.ped the allies. "We were con- 
fronted with a situation in which \^! had to choose between or^ening 
a road to Germany and \naking an . ^lemy of Germany. With the 
proclamation of submarine warfare ii^ 1915 we were told that either 
we must aid Germany hj ■^rippling sea jower or be treated as a hos- 
tile nation. The Germ;;ii j'oiicy was very simple: British mastery 
of the seas must be brokcu. It could be broken by an American at- 
tack from the rear or by , le German submarine. If America re- 
fused to attack from the r;?ar, America w..,= to be comited as an 
enemy. It was a case of he who is not for me is against me. 

To such an alternative thei ■ ^vas but one ans'vYer for a tree people 
to make. To become the ally of the conqueror of Belgium against 
Franoe and the British democracies was utterly out of the question. 
Our choice was made and the supreme question of American policy 
became: How far will Germany cyrry the war against us and how 
hard shall we strike back? That ve W:\to aligned on the tide of Ger- 
many's enemies no candid man, I thinix, r,m deny. The effect of 
this alignment was to make sea power a');-».lute. For mastery of 
the seas is no longer the possession of any one iiution . The supremacy 
of the British Navy in this war rests on international consent, on 
the consent of her allies and of the neutrals. Wilhout that" consent 
the blockade of Germany could not exist, nm'^ ho decision of America 
not to resist allied sea power was !sj Hriai blow which cut off Ger- 
many from the world. It happeae' gradually, without spectacular 
announcement, but history, I think, will call it one of the decisive 
events of the war. 

The effect was to deny Germany access to the resources of the 
neutral world, and to rpen these resources to the allies. Foetic 
justice never devised t more perfect retribution. The nation which 
had struck down a, neutral to gain a military advantage foimd the 
neutral world a pr.rtner of its enemies. 

That partne'-ship between the neutral world and Germany's 
enemies res^ ' on merchant shipping. This .gestcd a new theory 
of warfare i the German Government. It - ided that since every 
ship afloat I'ed the resources of its enemies, it might be a good idea to 
sink every ship afloat. It decided that since all the highways of the 
world w«re the com.munications of t'le allies, those communications 
shouL; be cut. It decided that if enough ships were destroyed, it 
didn't mati^er what ships or whos< ships, England and France would 
have to surrender and make a peace on the basis of Germany's 
victories in Europe. 

Therefore on the 31st of January, 1917, Germany abolished 
neutrality in the world. Tho i-olicy which began by denying that a 
qu&:,rrel in the Balkans could >« referred to Europe, went < a to de- 
stroy the internationahzed Slate of Belgium, culminatct! m indis- 



W0EL1> CONFLICT IN ITS RELATION TO Al BRIO AN OEMOCRACV. i 

criminr:- attack upon the merchant shiivp ug of all nations. The 
doctriii- of exclusive nationalism had m-. .'d through these three 
draiii. phases until those who held it -wrro at war with mankmd. 

III. 

Ti ible logic ■■aiy's police had a stui>eiid()us result. 

By sL g at the b.. :...-. ■-. a.Jl inters a tionral order, Germany con- 
vinced even tlie most isolated of iH-tlrals that order must be pre- 
ser^^cd '-v common, effort. Bv J^'ming that a society of nations 
exists, a society of nations ha^ • been forced into existence. The very 
thing Gtrmany challenged Germany- has established. Before 1914 
only a handful of visionaries dared t;; hope for some kind of federa- 
tion. The orthodox view was that each nation had a destiny of its 
own, spheres of iiifluence of its own, and that it was somehow beneath 
the dignity of ;i great state to discuss- its so-called vital mterests with 
other governi^i'Mits. It was a world rJmost without common aspira- 
tion, with feM cit'ective common ideals. Europe was split mto shifting 
alliances, deruocracies and autocracies jumbled together. America 
lay apart wiih a budding imperialism o? its own. China was marked 
as the helplr:.s victim of exploitation. That old political system was 
one ill. V, 'ri(:i the German view \\a>; by no means ■ altogether dis- 
reputable. Ijiternationalism w-as iiaif-hearted and generally regarded 
somewhat cynically. 

^'Vhat Germany did was to demonstrate ad nauseam the doctrine 
of competitive nationalism. Oi.her nations had applied it here and 
there, cautiously and timidly. No other nation in our time had ever 
applied it with absolute logic, with absolute preparation, and with 
absolute disregard of the consequences. Other nations had dallied 
with it, cc aipromised about it, muddled along with it. But Ger- 
many followed through, and Germany taught the world just where 
the doctrine leads. 

Out of the necesLities of defense against it men have gradually 
formulated the ideals of a cooperative nationaUsm. From all parts 
of tlie world there has been a movement of ideals working slowly 
towa7 d one end, toward a higher degree of spiritual unanimity than 
has wver been known before. China and India have been stirred 
out of their dependence. The American Republic has abandoned 
it^ isolation. Russia has become something like a republic. The 
British Empire is moving toward closer federation. The grand 
alliii ncG called into existence by the German aggression is now some- 
thing more than a juilitary coalition. Common ideals are working 
through it — ideals of local autonomy and joint action. Men are 
crying that they must bo f oo and that they must be united. They 
have learned that they can not be free unless they cooperate, that 
they can not cooperate unless they are free. 

I do not wish to underestimate tlie forces of reaction in our coun- 
•try xT in the other nations of vht alliance There are politicians and 
comme.i; ial groups who see io liiis whoie rnhig nothing but oppor- 
tunity .I'l secure concessions, manipulate- turiffs, and extend the 
bureau( • ides. We shall know how to deal with them. Forces 
have bat-n let loose which they can no longer control, and out of this 
immenst liorior ideas have arisen to possess rv>n's souls. There 
are tim .>' '^ n prudent statesman must bu;! i on a contracted 



6 WOItLu COlNl'LiOl iiv iiS KELAliUiSi lu AMEKIOAjST DEMOCRACY. 

view of human nature. But there are times when new sources of 
energy are tapped, v::, n the impossible becomes possible, when 
events outrun our c .-rliUions. This may be such a time. The 
alUance to which wc hiA'-a^ has suddenly grown hot with ''\o new 
democracy of Russia and,tA-.y new internationahsm of A . It 

has ha<i arr access of spiritual force wliich opens a ne\^ "t in 

the policies oi cbe world. We can dart/ to hope for cluu; ii we 

never dared t*; hope for in the past. T^i fact n those foi re not 

to grow cold and frittered th:<y 7j^^ko be turned to a grcuv^ 'ud and 
offered a great hope. 

IV. 

That great end and that gr^at hope is not -^ ,.- th.an the fed- 
eration of the world. I knoAv , sounds a little old-fashioned to use 
that phrase because we have alused it so long ia empty rhetoric; 
but no other idea is big enougn to describe the tuii-ince. It is no 
longer an offensive-defensive ndhtary agreement an k tig diplomats. 
That is how it started, to be ; ure ; but it has grown a ad is growing 
into a union of peoples detei mined to end forever tl'nt intriguing, 
adventurous nationalism vl; cli has torn the world icT three cen- 
turies. Good democrats have always believed that the common 
interests of men were greater tlian their special intorehts, that ruling 
classes can be enemies, but tho': the nations must be partners. Well, 
this war is being fought by nations. It is the nations who were 
called to arms, and it is the forr;(^ of nations that is now stirring the 
world to its foundations. 

The war is dissolving into n - ^ apci. I'us revolution. A few months 
a^o we still argued about the Bagdac corridor, strategic frontiers, 
felonies. Those were the stakes of the diplomat's war. The whole 
perspective is changed to-day by the revolution in Russia and the 
intervention of America. The scale of vr'lues is traiij-^formed, for 
the democracies are unloosed. Those demot:':.cies h; ■ uo thing to 
gain and everything to lose by the old con'petiti\; ii tioiiplism, 
the old apparatus of diplomacy, with its crnnmal rivaines in the 
backward places of the earth. The democnjcios, if they ar ■ to be 
safe, must cooperate. For the old i^vakiev? mean friction and arma- 
ment and a distortion of all the hopes of free government. They 
mean that nations are organized to exploit each other and to exploit 
themselves. That is the life of what we call autocracy. It estab- 
lishes its power at home by pointing to enemies abroad. It t'':iits 
its enemies abroad by dragooning the population at home 

That is why practically the whole world is at war wil;. > h :.roatest 
of the autocracies. That is why the whole world isiuiruiiig so pas- 
sionately toward democracy as the onH princ:..!e on which peace 
can be secured. Many have feared, r*know, that the war against 
Prussian militarism would resulc the other way, that instefid of 
liberalizing Prussia the outc- ;ae would be a Prussianization of the 
democr.icies. That would he the outcome if Prusso -Germany won, 
That would be the result oi a Gei man \ ic^nry. And that is v/hy we, 
who are the most peac rul of democrrK k;- are at war. The success 
of the submarine wodd give Germany victory. It was and is her 
one great chance. To have stood aside when Germany made this 
terrible bid for vict;)ry would have been to betray the ho] of free 
government and ir ternational union. 

DC la A 11 



WORLD CONFLICT L^ ITS RELATTOiT TO AMLRICAlSr DEMOCLIl'. 9 

V. 

There arc two w:i ow in which peace cm be made. Hie 

fkst is by {Political ution in Germanv and Austria-liungary. 

It is not for us to del '\q nature of that revolutibji. We can not 
dictate liberty to th< tan people. It is for them to decide what 

political in-titatif:Ls vill adopt, but if peace is to come through 

revolution, we shalli-:n 'lat i+ ^ms come when new voices are'lioavu 
in Germany, new policic s are proclaimed, when there is good eviOence 
that there has, indeed, bt^en a ljw orientation. If that is done, the 
war can be ended by negon'ation. 

The other path to peace is by the definite deii-- of every item 
in the p] : ..I'am of aggression. This will mean. a.i a minimum, a 
demons!; vLon on the field that the German army is not invincible; 
a renunciation by Germany o' all the territory she has conquered; a 
special compensation to Bei)j.iim; and an acknowledgiu,3nt of the 
fallacy of exclusive national '.:>m by an applic.-, tion for lirnnbership 
in the !■ ague of nations. 

Fronl^er cjuestions, colon-al questions, ;ire now entirtiy sec- 
ondary, and beyond this lui.iimum progi\ m the United Stales has 
no direct interest in th'"- territorial settlement. The objects for 
which we are at war wiH be attained if vve can defeat absolutely the 
foreign policy of ibe present German Government. For a ruling 
cast'^ V'.hic^i has be-. > 'j.umiliated abroad has lost its glamor at home. 
So we are aL war to defeat the Gterman Government in the ouf-r 
world, to destroy its prestige, to deny its conquests, and to th^'ow it 
back at la (into the arms of tiie German people marked and dis- 
credited as the author of their miseries. It is for them to make the 
final settlement with it. 

If it is our privilege co uxert the power which turns '' scale, it 
is our duty to see thai the end justifies the means. <> can win 
nothing ^rom this war unless it culminates in a '.jui .'•. oi libersl 
peopJr.., pledged to cooperate in the settlement of ;.li outstanding 
questions, sworn to turn against the aggressor, d* termined to erecib 
a larger and more modern system of interna tionai. law upon a federa- 
tion of the world. That is what we are figh'iip.g lor, at this moment, 
on the ocean, in the shipyard, and in the fac lory; Inter perhaps in 
France and Belgium, ultimatel}^ at the council of peace. 

If Tv'^^ are strong enough and wise enougli to win this victory, to 
reject aU the poison of hatred abroad and intolerance at home, we 
shall have made a nation to which free men wiU turn with love and 
gratitude. Por ourselves we shall stand committed as never before 
to the realizatiGn •'" democracy in America. We who have gone to 
war to insure democracy in the world will have raised an aspira iion 
here that wiU not end \dth the overth-'ov,- of the Prussian autocra-'y. 
We shall turn with fres> interests to our own tyrannies — to om 
Colorado mines, our auto-'-ratic steel industries, our sweatshops, and 
our slums. We shall call ihat ftian un-American and no patriot who 
prates of liberty in Europe and res'- 1 it at home. A jorce is loose 
in America as well. Our own reacti ..aiies will not assuage it with 
their Billy Smidays or control it through lawyers and- politicians of 
the old guard. 

. - o 



i 



I 



i 



h 













^^-:^. 



.^' 












0' 






c 



0^ 










Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. [^ 
r) "^ ^ i"^ '\ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide <? 

■^o '' .a'J^'' Treatment Date: TQQI L 

:, ^^ -^ ^' PreservationTechnologies 

°^ " I A WOHLB LEADER in PAPER PBESERVATIOf 

« .0 V7» ■* < 111 Thomson Park Dnve 




o V 











